SCC in the Community

Welcome to our first ever blog post for SCC in the Community and what better opportunity than to present to you the real faces behind SCC.

It’s true that we haven’t officially been operating for very long but rest assured, dear partners and friends, that we have been moving full steam ahead on numerous projects!

Please meet Gavin van der Linde. We are so lucky to have Gavin as our CEO. He is the one taking care of all our business transactions, which include our own internal operating budgets and external contract negotiations. He exudes top notch leadership skills and allows our team to reach its full potential.

This quote is so true with Gavin:

“Leadership is not about being the best. Leadership is about making everyone else better.”

In addition to his CEO responsibilities, Gavin is very passionate about wastewater technologies. His background in the municipal world allows him to understand what’s at stake for municipalities making important infrastructure decisions. Indeed, he’s so committed to finding the most cost-effective wastewater options for our clients that he often comes up with solutions in his dreams (not kidding)!

And the brains behind our operations is our Chief Technology Officer Dr. Henry David Venema, but we call him Hank. Hank is not only a highly respected academic but also is very charming and great with clients. While he is specialized in hydrology and renewable energy, Hank has a leaning for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the advances it can make in assessing the ROI for multi-benefit surface water management within Manitoba (I know… crazy!). He’s always thinking outside the box pushing us to consider the many technological implications of our projects. Hank is very passionate about finding the best technological solutions for municipalities for all their infrastructure needs and is pursuing a full systems approach analysis with various university institutions.

Here you see Hank passionately working on the Treherne dam feasibility project. Guaranteed his future findings will earn him many accolades in the years to come!Finally, allow me to introduce myself. I am Joelle Saltel and I am the Chief Communications Officer. Since our official launch, I have been working on internal and external communications documents, as well as fostering inter-personal relationships with our various stakeholders and clients. Anything that needs to be written, guaranteed I had a role to play with it! I can’t believe how busy we have been working on various proposals, applications and reports.My day-to-day responsibilities also include making sure Gavin and Hank stay on top of deadlines, stay on message and say the right things (haha), but please don’t ever ask me to remember passwords… passwords are the bane of my existence and a daily struggle. But other than that, working with this team has so far been a dream! Not only am I able to pursue my work with municipalities, which I love, but expand my knowledge and experience in areas that are totally foreign to me!We currently have a home base in a shared office space in Winnipeg’s Exchange District and Hank has gotten all of us hooked on Yerba Mate... what a hipster! :-) But most of the time, we are working out of our mobile office, AKA Gavin’s 2015 grey Honda Civic. FYI, we almost always have a bucket of fried chicken in the backseat to appease our endless cravings during the long road trips visiting our clients!Stay tuned for next month’s blog. Hank will be taking a stab at it!